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Information Technology: A Critical Perspective on its Economic Effects
Abstract
Information Technology (IT) is commonly seen as the most important motor for growth and economic restructuring in the near future. Visions about massive benefits to be derived from these developments are contrasted by frustration over productivity effects, by uncertainty about impacts on employment, and by concerns about a general ‘information overflow’ in a global network society. The contradictions between enthusiastic forecasts and much more sober outcomes have given rise to a debate on the potential and danger of IT. The present paper intends to add to this debate. Promises of common IT scenarios will be confronted with problem-oriented and critical approaches. The paper proceeds from an analysis of deficits in the current debates towards the identification of new elements of a critical approach in IT research.
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Notes and References
The author would like to thank Ralf Rogowski, Dennis Smith and Oswald Jones for helpful comments.
G-7 Ministerial Conference on the Information Society, Chair's Conclusions, Brussels 25 and 26 February 1995 (G-7 Conference 1995).
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This problem has been addressed by the conference ‘Challenges for the Information Society’, held in Dresden in 1993. The proceedings of this conference have been published in Zoche, op. cit, Ref. 30.
Fincham observes a new era of user-involvement in IT innovation. He argues that recent technological developments, such as client-server systems and open architectures, take computer technology nearer to the users. See R. Fincham, ‘Professionalization and the computing occupations’, in: R. Fincham (Ed.), New Relationships in Organised Professions (Aldershot, Avebury, 1996).
Landauer, op. cit., Ref. 13.
See White Paper, op. cit., Ref. 3; Bangemann, 1994, 1995, op. cit, Refs 3, 4; Federal Ministry of Economics, op. cit., Ref. 5.
An example of the imbalance between jobs destroyed and jobs created are the employment policies of Siemens, the big German producer of electrical equipment: between 1970 and 1991, Siemens, made redundant 33,000 female workers in production. Over the same period, 3000 additional office jobs were created. See A. Bahl-Benker, ‘Informationstechnik und Frauenarbeit’, in: Zoche, op. cit., Ref. 30, pp. 260–280, at p. 265. See also Seufert, op. cit., Ref. 16.
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Wissenschaft—Wirtschaft—Politik, Zwei Millionen Multimedia-Arbeitsplätze—Doch wenig echte neue, 38, 1995.
See White Paper, op. cit., Ref. 3. G-7 Conference, op. cit., Ref. 2.
In connection with the G-7 Conference in February 1995, the German Ministry of Economics, for example, has claimed that IT will produce 10 million new jobs. See Die Welt, 26 February, 1995. The figure has been calculated from an estimated additional turnover of DM 620 billion in communication services. This means that, on average, every new job produces a turnover of 62 000 DM or about £28 000. At the same time, Deutsche Telekom, the main provider for communication services in Germany, announced further cuts in its workforce and stated that it aims at about DM 400 000 turnover per employee in order to be efficient. In early 1996, the Ministry corrected its forecast: its now expects 6 million additional jobs over the next 15 years, of which 1.5 million are supposed to be created in Germany. See Federal Ministry of Economics, op. cit., Ref. 5.
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AD-Employ, op. cit, Ref. 9, p. 1.
Ibid., p. 43.
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See, for example, G-7 Conference, op. cit, Ref. 2.
Ibid.
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Appelbaum & Albin, op. cit., Ref. 48.
C. Freeman & L. Soete, ‘Afterword and Policy Conclusions’, in: Ducatel, op. cit, Ref. 59, pp. 218–229.
See Programme on Information and Communication Technologies (PICT), Profile of Research and Publications (London, ESRC, 1995).
See M. Katz & C. Shapiro, ‘Technology Adoption in the Presence of Network Externalities’, Journal of Political Economy, 94, 1986, pp. 822–841.
See also C. Antonelli, ‘The Economic Theory of Information Networks’, in: C. Antonelli (Ed.), The Economics of Information Networks (Amsterdam, North-Holland, 1992).
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Macdonald, op. cit, Ref. 68, p. 563.
S. Macdonald, ‘Information Networks and the Exchange of Information’, in: C. Antonelli (Ed.), The Economics of Information Networks (Amsterdam, North-Holland, 1992), pp. 51–69.
Macdonald, op. cit., Ref. 72.
Ibid.
Roszak, op. cit., Ref. 70, pp. 105–106.
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AD-Employ, op. cit, Ref. 9.
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Independent, 5 January 1996.
See M. Heller, Die globale Informationsgesellschaft—der europäische Beitrag, Paper Given at the Seminar: ‘Europa auf dem Weg zur globakn Informationsgesellschaft’, Europäische Bewegung Deutschland, Bonn, September 1995.
Landauer, op. cit, Ref. 13.
L. Soete, ‘Information technologies promoting structural change’, in: Zoche, op. cit., Ref. 30, pp. 170–191.
See, for example, AD-Employ for forecasts of employment effects.